Conservatives make gun issue new rallying cry

STEVE PEOPLES
Associated PressPublished: February 3, 2013 4:24PM

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- An immigration debate is raging and a budget crisis looms in Congress, but guns are the new rallying cry that conservative activists from New Hampshire to Colorado have seized on for the tea party movement.

Tea party leaders say the focus on blocking new gun control laws has sprung up with little coordination from national groups.

They say it doesn't matter that neither President Barack Obama nor congressional Democrats are calling for a wholesale repeal of gun rights. Tea party activists are enraged by the possibility of what they see as any erosion of the Second Amendment.